Chapter 216: Frustration

Chapter 216: Frustration

“Fugitive, I’d like to call a ceasefire! You don’t move from that spot, and I won’t make chase. We will resume this later, once I’m done speaking with Ripley,” Jon called to me and Erani. He turned over to where Sylvie and Ainash had been fighting the soldiers. “Men, put down your weapons. We will...oh.”

I looked where he was staring, only to see Ainash standing in the middle of four bisected corpses, all cut cleanly in half by her whip. Blood covered her body and the yellowish grass that surrounded her. An obviously horrified Sylvie stared at her, and Ainash herself was enthusiastically waving hello to us with a big, open-mouth smile on her face.

Jon pursed his lips, sighed, then turned back to Ripley. “Well, that’s dealt with then, I suppose. Anyway, I’d like to negotiate with you regarding a peaceful return to the Koinkar Kingdom.”

“I’m not going with you,” Ripley growled, weapon still drawn.

Part of me just wanted to sprint off with Erani. Jon was distracted, speaking with Ripley, and maybe we’d get a good bit of distance between us before he realized. But the other part of me knew he probably would notice instantly, and we’d resume our chase as we had before in just as bad a situation as we’d been in.

Fact of the matter was, we got a lot more out of this break time than he did. His buffs would wear off, so he’d have to reapply them once we got back to fighting, meaning he’d waste all of that Mana. And on my end, I’d get much, much more Mana back from natural regeneration in the time that passed than he would.

He had probably understood that he’d come off a little behind as time passed because of the buffs, but he had no way of knowing about my insane Mana/Minute, meaning he was completely unaware of the fact that every second that passed directly translated to almost 2 full points of Mana being deposited right into my pool. So I was more than happy to let him argue for a moment with Ripley, especially considering I knew what the outcome to this conversation would be, anyway; he’d already had it in the previous timeline, and Ripley had refused to go with him, choosing to fight instead.

Jon continued speaking with Ripley. “Asmo wants you back in the kingdom. She said that you were, ahem, ‘an invaluable strategic and emotional asset.’ So, my orders are to bring you back.”

“Emotional asset, huh?” Ripley laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about like what she’d say. I get what you want, Jon, but I can’t go back with you. If Asmo wants me, she’s gonna have to come and get me, herself. I wanna duel her, one on one, and we’ll see who breaks first. Go back home and tell her that.”

“I can’t go back to the kingdom without you,” Jon said plainly. “So, if you won’t come voluntarily, I hope you understand that I’ll be forced to put you into a more agreeable state.”

Ripley chuckled. “Really? You’re outnumbered, what...one, two three...eight to one. Don’t care that there’s a bit of a Level gap between you and me, you really wanna sit there and tell me you can make up for that?”

“Have you been viewing the battle so far?” Jon asked. “How many lives do you think your so-called allies have taken?”

Her face turned to a scowl at that. “Ah. Right. Y’know, I never liked that Spell. Feels too much like cheating.”

“Don’t be a plague on the world, and it won’t affect you.”

“How much damage would it do to you, Jon?”

“I will admit that I have taken on much of a personal burden in my mission to improve the world. I have cured many sicknesses by taking them onto myself. I am a blight, just as many others have been, and it will become a better place when I am dead. But before then, I will continue to work to help as many people as possible.”

Ripley rolled her eyes, preparing to say something, but before she did, another voice shouted out.

“Hey, Annor!” I glanced over to see it was Sylvie, confused at her interjection. She continued, “Ask him!”

“What?” I responded, yelling back across the battlefield.

“Ask him! The guards!”

I glanced at the guard outpost confusedly. Was something wrong with Bon, Jannin, and Poppins? Didn’t seem like it.

Sylvie saw my confusion, and looked at me like I was crazy. “The whole flamin’ reason we’re here! Those border guards who went missing! With the bounty?”

“Oh, right,” I said. That was technically the reason we’d come out here initially, and as far as Sylvie knew, the entire reason we were here. Jon was just a suspect in the crime we were investigating, not an assassin here sent to kill us. Right. “Uh, yeah, Jon, did you, like, kill some guards on your way across the border? In an outpost like this one?”

He ignored my question, instead looking to Sylvie. “That’s what he has you believing? You’re here to collect some bounty for a missing person? Do you even know who you’re working with?”

Hm, yeah, that’d be a problem. I stepped forward, preparing to re-engage with some Spells, but Erani was a step ahead of me, using one of her limited activations of Elemental Embrace to shoot off a superpowered Firebolt straight at him.

Barely opening my eyes, I saw Erani holding out her hand and throwing off a Firebolt before the same blinding white light filled the sky above her, and then came crashing down on her body, as well. She was crushed, though not technically dead, with her own Angelic Shield coming in to save her from being killed—though it also left her with no Mana.

“So, that’s dealt with, then.” Jon’s muffled voice came through my ringing ears. “Anyway, Ripley, I’d rather not waste time fighting you and making this take longer than it has to. You come with me, and we both end up alive. If I’m forced to kill you, I’m sure neither of us would enjoy what would come of that.”

Something prodded my arm, and I opened my eyes again to see one of the soldiers poking me with his foot.

“S-sir!” he said. “This one’s still alive!”

“They both are!” said another, coming from Erani’s location.

“Oh, that’s curious,” Jon said. “I was sure they’d have died in a single hit, especially considering they’re Magic-Types. I suppose I should pay more attention to my notifications, shouldn’t I? Well, no matter.”

I sat up, trying to get to my feet and hopefully scramble out of his range, but before I could even plant a foot on the ground, I was slammed back into the dirt by one of the soldiers using that damn force Spell again.

And then the bright light filled the sky, came crashing down on me for another time, and I was reminded once again of the sins Jon convicted me of.

You have been smitten. 1075 damage.

Your Health is 0.

You have died.

**********

In the in-between place, I plopped down on the ground. Not that there was a ground, or that I even had a body to plop onto that non-existent ground, but I put enough force of will into the idea of collapsing into the floor in an expression of defeat that I got the damn message across.

Fucking really?! I thought. He had soldiers in reserve the entire time? Yeah, no, that’s cool, just keep three entire Magic-Types literally hiding behind some rocks or whatever, and then don’t even fucking use them for the entire first timeline. That’s really cool, and totally fair of you to do. I mean seriously, what the fuck?!

I tried to calm myself down, putting some thought into the concept of closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

So there’s him, his four accompanying Melee-Types, and then three more Magic-Types staying back as cavalry to call in if things get dire, I guess. Or, at least, one of them was a Magic-Type, with some Spell that can throw us around like ragdolls. What a jackass.

Yeah, I still wasn’t calm. I could feel my mind fading by now, though, so I hurried to pick a time—the furthest back, as usual.

**********

And then I was back, walking down the road yet again. I was actually back before I’d come to this point when looping the first time, meaning nobody knew anything, still.

I instantly turned around and began walking the opposite direction.

“Uh, Annor, what’re you doing?” Sylvie asked.

“Is there trouble?” Ainash asked as well, though I wasn’t sure if it was actually her, or if she was just relaying a message from Erani.

“C’mon, we’re going back to town,” I called back to them.

“What? Why?”

“We’re getting more people.”

If Jon can bring in reinforcements, so can I.